ASUS ROG CROSSHAIR VIII DARK HERO

Asus’ Crosshair Hero Dark uses the same phase count (16) but upgrades to premium 90A parts instead of 60A in the non-Dark model. The 90A bits are some of the most robust we’ve seen and should easily handle any ambient or sub-ambient overclocking. Another significant difference between the Dark and the original Hero is the styling. The Dark tweaks things a bit with the heatsinks using a grooved pattern on the chipset/M.2 covers as well as the VRM heatsinks around the socket.

Read more @ Tom’s Hardware

MSI: AGESA v1.1.9.0 BIOS Updates Coming Soon for 400/500 Series Boards

[Taipei, Taiwan] MSI, the world leading gaming motherboard brand, releases optimized BIOS updates for AMD 500-series and 400-series motherboards. The latest AGESA Combo PI V2 1.1.9.0 beta BIOS has been released for MEG X570 GODLIKE, MEG X570 UNIFY, MEG B550 UNIFY / UNIFY-X, MPG B550 GAMING EDGE WIFI and MAG B550M MORTAR / MORTAR WIFI. And the rest models will be able to download soon in January 2021.

MAIN HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE OPTIMIZED BIOS UPDATES

– Optimized AMD Curve Optimizer function.
– Optimized Re-Size BAR function with NVidia Graphics cards.

*Download and install the latest BIOS by using M-Flash or Flash BIOS Button to update target models.
**Ensure to always download the latest BIOS from msi.com corresponding product pages.

Read more @ MSI

MSI MPG B550 GAMING EDGE WIFI

With the MPG B550 series, MSI offers mainboards in the middle price segment. There is a choice of three ATX mainboards and ITX mainboards. We take a closer look at the MPG B550 Gaming Edge WIFI, it has numerous fan connections and a USB-C front panel connection and it also brings a surprise. You can find out everything else in our test. The MPG B550 Gaming Edge WIFI was provided to us by MSI.

Read more @ Hardware Inside (German)

Intel Core i7-11700K – Spotted w/Geekbench 5

One of Intel’s upcoming 11th Gen Rocket Lake-S chips, the Core i7-11700K, has been spotted in the Geekbench 5 database. These chips are expected to debut shortly after the new year, so it hopefully won’t be much longer before we get more details on performance. Looking at this Geekbench 5 score, we see the Core i7-11700K besting AMD’s Ryzen 9 5950X (1672) in single core performance. We know Intel is bringing IPC gains to these new chips, just as AMD did with Zen 3. It looks, from this result, like they may leapfrog AMD again to take the single core crown. Time will tell. Until then, here’s what we have:

ASRock X570 TAICHI RAZER EDITION

ASRock has been focusing on gaming products for the past few years. From the early days of their ‘Fatal1ty’ series to ‘Phantom Gaming’, and now their latest ‘PG Velocita’ series. But wait, ASRock isn’t done yet … they continue to capture the essence and needs of the gamers, giving them all that they’ll need, for an immersive and fulfilling gaming experience. So with that said, we have something special for you … let us present you, the ASRock X570 Taichi Razer Edition motherboard – their coolest flagship motherboard to date!

Read more @ FunkyKit

GIGABYTE B550 AORUS ELITE

The GIGABYTE B550 AORUS ELITE we have today is based on the AMD B550 chipset and like all others in this series of chipsets, this board features the design in terms of CPU, RAM, and PCI-Express support and reliability. It also supports AMD Ryzen 5000 Series CPUs. However, this board is a mid-level design so it may be lacking some of the features that are found in the higher-level motherboards. We were rather surprised to see the logo “(rev 1.0)” indicating they are planning a further revision of the same board.

Read more @ The FPS Review

TUF GAMING X570-PRO: Preview Updated

Now that we’ve finally got our thermal camera in, we’re starting the last remaining portion of testing prior to completion of the full write up. We grabbed two quick shots of the VRM at idle with DDR4 running at 3866MT/s, along with a 1.1V VSOC. We’ve also got the X570 chipset / heatsink shown. Head on over the our preview for a look.

ASUS ROG STRIX B550-I GAMING

Coming in at around the £200 mark, this high-end B550 offering features an actively cooled 8+2 power stage design, dual M.2 sockets, plentiful quantities of 10Gbps USB on the rear and internally, and high-speed wired and wireless networking connectivity. ASUS also included a unique feature in its USB Type-C audio connector.

£200 is steep for a B550 motherboard, even in the typically more expensive Mini-ITX form factor. And with tough competition from the similarly priced ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming-ITX/AX motherboard in particular, can ASUS’ ROG STRIX B550-I Gaming prove its worth? Let’s take a look.

Read more @ KitGuru

ASRock Beta X370, B350 & A320 BIOS’ for Ryzen 5000

ASRock has released BETA BIOS support AMD Ryzen 5000 Desktop CPUs on its X370, B350 & A320 line of motherboards. The BIOS for each respective AMD 300-series chipset motherboard are now available to download over at HKEPC if you want to run your brand new Vermeer chip on an older motherboard.

According to HKEPC, ASRock has provided them BETA BIOS for a total of 16 X370, B350 and A320 motherboards. These motherboards date all the way back to 2017 when the first AMD Ryzen CPUs were launched so they are quite old but there are plenty of users who still own these boards and are running either 1st or 2nd Gen Ryzen CPUs on them. The site reports that there are no issues in terms of AMD Ryzen 5000 CPU support but full stability for the chips is not guaranteed.

Read more @ WCCFTech